LD 2120 
T5 
I Copy 1 






BHISi 



■ 



■ 



■ 






■Hi 



m 



i ■ 



■ 

rti^-V 1 



■ 

1, 



REMARKS 



*"H VffiES. LATFT Y rjTlftByttflrP OR ADOPTED, 



^fiKJF fc* TELY ftB^B^E 



in 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



BY GEORGE TICKJVOR, 

SMITH PROFESSOR, &C. 






PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS, HILLIARD & CO, 



True and Greene, Printers, Merchants' Hall. 
1825. 






To prevent any misapprehension of the object of the following Remarks, 
it may be necessary to premise, that they were originally prepared for a 
different mode of publication, and that they are now printed without alter- 
ation, except the change of the first person plural to the first person singu- 
lar ; and the addition of the notes marked A. and B., which are placed by 
themselves, at the end. 

The Author hopes, also, that he may be indulged in the further observa- 
tion, that the changes which he has here endeavoured to explain and de- 
fend, no otherwise affect his own relations to Harvard College, than as they 
increase his own labours. 

September 23, 1825. 












V 



I 



REMARKS. 



The age in which we live has been appropriately called 
the age of improvement ; and certainly, among the demands 
made by its peculiar spirit, none has been more constant, 
more extensive, or more earnest, than the demand, in this 
country, for an improved state of education. It ha? been 
felt among us on every side, and in almost every form ; in 
the humblest primary instruction given by charity ; in the 
large public resorts, where our youth are fitted for the more 
laborious occupations of life ; in our colleges ; and in the 
schools through which the professions are to be entered by 
those, who hope to attain to much eminence in them. In 
all, the standard has been greatly raised, and is still rapidly 
rising, without, perhaps, in any, meeting entirely the wants 
and hopes of the community. For the generation, on whom 
now rest the cares of life among us, feel very sensibly, how 
much more lightly their burthen could be borne, if they had 
more of that knowledge, which is, indeed, power every- 
where, but nowhere so truly and entirely, as in the midst of 
free institutions ; so that there is, at this moment, hardly a 
father in our country, who does not count among his chief 
anxieties, and most earnest hopes, the desire to give his chil- 
dren a better education, than he has been able to obtain for 
himself. 

It is natural, and indeed wise, that this stirring spirit 
should have made very plain and loud demands, on what 
may be considered the high places of knowledge among us ; 
and it was, perhaps, inevitable, that these demands should 
first be made in a distinct and definite shape on Harvard 
College. For Harvard College is one of a very few institu- 
tions in our land, that are beginning to be venerable for age 
and respectable in resources. It is, indeed, the oldest of 



/'*? 



our greater publie schools ; it is the most amply endowed ; 
it has, by far, the largest number of teachers ; and its col- 
lections, libraries, and apparatus, though still very incom- 
plete, are yet, when taken together, more complete than 
those of any similar establishment in the country. In con- 
sequence of this, and in consequence of a general persua- 
sion, that this ancient establishment has not fulfilled the ex- 
pectations and claims, which its increased means have ex- 
cited, important discussions have been carried on for some 
years back by those to whose management its affairs are 
entrusted, concerning its organisation, discipline, and in- 
struction, in the hope of fitting it better to the increased and 
increasing demands of the community. 

The discussions brought out by this state of feeling and 
opinion, have laid before the public the means and manage- 
ment of this college more fully than, from official sources, the 
means and management of any college in the country had 
been known before. An Indistinct persuasion had, indeed, 
long prevailed, that it did not keep pace with the spirit of 
the times, and that a considerable portion of its means was 
not brought into efficient operation ; but the exaggerated 
fears and statements, to which this uncertainty gave rise, are 
now removed, and from the authentic sources, which are 
become accessible to all, the following may be easily distin- 
guished as among the principal grounds for the anxiety, which 
prevailed in regard to its existing condition ; and may serve, 
at the same time, as a warning to most of the other colleges 
in our country, which, in proportion to their respective ages 
and means, are advancing with the same system and the same 
usages to similar results. 

In the first place, the time really appropriated to study, 
and provided with means of instruction, is found to have been 
too small, owing to the great amount of vacations and holi- 
days. From the answer of the immediate government to the 
fifteenth question of the committee of the Overseers, primed 
with the report of that committee January 6, 1825, it ap- 
pears, that the average amount of time not provided with in- 
struction, during the four years of college life, was twenty 
weeks and two days annually.* This made something moi" 

* Namely, vacation from Commencement, four weeks and two days : va- 
cation in the winter, seven weeks ; vacation in May, two weeks ; Seniors 
vacation before Commencement, nveracod among the four years, one week 



than two fifths of all the time passed at college, or above 
four months and a half annually, inevitable vacation, during 
which the very system itself did not pretend to provide the 
means of education for the young men sent to avail them- 
selves of it. Every parent, who understood this, felt at 
once, that he was running a great risk, and suffering an irre- 
parable loss, by giving up so much of his child's time to au- 
thorised idleness ; at a period of life too, when time has no 
price, and when constant occupation is the truest and safest 
moral discipline for the character. And yet, if we look 
through the country, we shall find, with the exception of the 
University of Virginia, and perhaps one or two other places, 
that there is not a single college, which does not give nearly 
or quite as much time to holidays and vacations, as Cam- 
bridge did. 

In the next place, even during the time appropriated to 
study, and regularly filled with recitations, the modes of in- 
struction are found to have been imperfect, compared with 
the means, from which they were furnished. The whole 
system of instruction has, heretofore, rested on the alphabet- 
ical arrangement of the four classes ; as if a young man's 
talent and character depended on the letter with which his 
name happens to begin. This was a radical and capital de- 
fect. The attempt to force together sixty or eighty young 
men, many of whom have nothing, or almost nothing, in 
common ; who are of very unequal ages, talents, attain- 
ments, habits, and characters ; and to compel them to ad- 
vance pari passu during four of the most active and valuable 
years of life, giving to the most industrious and intelligent no 
more and no other lessons, than to the most dull and idle, is 
a thing that is unknown to the practical arrangements for ed- 
ucation in other countries ; that is not attempted in ours 
either before or after the period of college life ; and that has 
been practised at college only from adherence to an ancient 
arrangement, long after the motives for that arrangement had 
ceased to exist. For though it might be inevitable in the 

five days; two Hays at the beginning of each term, six days ; four days be- 
fore Commencement ; four days at Thanksgiving ; Fast day ; three Exhibi- 
tions, four Examinations, Artillery Election, and Fourth of July, two thirds 
of each day being unprovided with exercises, make six days ; and Saturday 
afternoons during thirty-two weeks, are two weeks and two days; — in all, 
twenty weeks and two "days. 



earliest period of the establishment at Cambridge, when 
there were fewer tutors than classes, and was, probably, less 
injurious in its operation, while the classes were quite small, 
and the instruction of their members by a general average 
not so likely of course to be an injustice to the best of 
them ; yet, after the whole of this state of things was rever- 
sed, after the number of instructers was increased, till it 
amounted to four or five for each class, and the number of 
students to be taught together had risen to sixty or eighty, 
and a general average was necessarily become a great neg- 
lect and injustice to the most active and able, all ground for 
continuing the system of instruction on the old alphabetical 
and arbitrary arrangement of the classes failed. This ar- 
rangement, however, exists, in nearly all our colleges, and 
was continued at Cambridge from one period to another, 
partly from ancient usage and habit, and partly because it 
was not thought easy to alter what had been so long estab- 
lished. 

But, supposing the alphabetical arrangement to have been 
inevitable, still the modes of instruction pursued under it 
were less perfect than could have been attained, with the 
means at the disposition of the college. The recitations, as 
it appears by the answer of the immediate government to 
the fifth question of the committee of the Overseers, were 
held by the greater part of the instructers with a whole class 
present, amounting, perhaps, to sixty ; by a part of the in- 
structers with divisions consisting of half a class ; and by 
another part with sections consisting of a quarter of a class ; 
all collected, of course, according to the alphabet. The 
length of each exercise averaged about three quarters of an 
hour, and no student attended more than three on any one 
day during the thirtyfour weeks when they were provided, 
and could not average so much even as that. 

The consequences of such a state of things are apparent. 
Nothing could be undertaken with an arrangement so inade- 
quate, except a hurried examination of the students in cer- 
tain books, which they were required to read. The result 
was, that they learnt a given book, rather than a given sub- 
ject ; they learnt Locke or Brown, rather than metaphysics, 
and Horace rather than Latin ; for the instructers had no 
time to do more, than examine four or five minutes daily 
each student, that came into their presence, and often were 



unable to do even that with every individual ; so that the 
amount of personal attention received by any student, on an 
average, from his instructers at college, would be thought 
insufficient for the instruction of children in the humblest 
primary or charity school, where only the rudest elements of 
education are attempted. Indeed, the great principle of 
teaching was lost sight of, and that of an imperfect and dry 
examination was substituted from the necessity of the case. 
The mind of the instructer was not made to act, as it ought 
to do, directly on the minds of his pupils in familiar explana- 
tion and illustration ; and the best purpose of education, 
therefore, the purpose of exciting intellectual activity and 
creating intellectual habits, was, in the recitations, overlook- 
ed at Cambridge, and is still overlooked in most or all the 
other colleges of our country. 

Nor were the Lectures on a better footing, than the Reci- 
tations. They were attended by whole classes, whether the 
individual members were prepared for such instruction or 
not ; no notes were required to be taken ; and a law passed 
a few years since, requiring examinations, was not executed. 
The Lectures were simply read, and then the students were 
dismissed. Professor Jardine of Glasgow, — who taught three 
hours a day till he was nearly ninety years old, and made a 
reform there, for which Mr. Campbell, in his late letter on 
the University of London, has paid him a beautiful tribute 
of well earned praise, — Professor Jardine says, after an ex- 
perience of above half a century in different modes of instruc- 
tion, that ' there certainly never was a wilder scheme devised 
by the perverted ingenuity of man, than that of attempting to 
improve the minds of youth, and create intellectual habits, 
by the sole means of reading a lecture, without farther inter- 
course between teacher and pupil.' We have no doubt the 
whole force of this remark applies to the Lectures, which are 
generally delivered to the undergraduates at our Colleges. 
They may be ever so able and well written ; they may be 
ever so learned and eloquent ; but, on the present system, 
they are a waste of the time both of the hearers and the 
instructers. 

In the third place, it is now rendered evident, that the 
apparatus and funds of the University at Cambridge, may be 
made to do more than has yet been effected. We have, with 
the Report of the Committee of the Overseers, made Jan. 



6, 1825, the Treasurer's account of income, salaries, and 
other expenditures on the one side, and on the other, an ac- 
count of the duties and employments of the officers, given 
by the immediate Government, in their answer to question 
seventh. From these official documents we obtain the fol- 
lowing remarkable result. Four officers, the aggregate of 
whose salaries was .$4300, gave the students in College two 
thousand three hundred and sixtyfour exercises annually ; 
exercises, too, which are as laborious, important, and valua- 
ble, as any given ; while eleven other instructers, the ag- 
gregate of whose salaries was $14,382 76, gave the same 
students only eight hundred and twentyfour exercises annu- 
ally ;* a number less than is often given by a single professor 
of the first rank and ability, to his classes in Europe, and 
much less difficult and laborious, than the exercises, which 
these distinguished men continue even to a great old age, 
amidst the toil and excitement of composing works, that fill 
the lettered world with their fame. 

I am aware, that it would be impossible, perhaps not de- 
sirable, in a College like Cambridge, exactly to apportion 
the salaries and duties of the different instructers, so that all 
should stand on a perfect equality. I am aware, that the 
provisions of some of the statutes of the founders, may not 
leave it within the power of any body of men in the state, 
to determine what shall be the duties of some of the Pro- 
fessors at Cambridge. But there was certainly no sort of 
ground for the above disproportion. Almost three quarters 
of the instruction, given to undergraduates, was purchased 
for one third of the sum paid for the remaining quarter. 
Such facts need no comment or discussion. It is clear that 
the College at Cambridge may be made much more effectual 
for the instruction of the community, than it has been here- 
tofore, and I doubt not if similar inquiries were made, re- 
specting some other colleges, a result, at least resembling 
this, and tending the same way, would be obtained. 

Another ground of dissatisfaction concerning Cambridge 
College, and one Which exists in a greater or less degree, 
concerning other establishments of the same kind in our 

* This calculation excludes the Medical Professors, the College Law 
Professor, and the Dexter Professor ; because they chiefly or entirely in- 
struct graduates. If the fixed salaries of those of them, who lecturo to 
undergraduates', were included, the disproportion would be still greater. 



country, is the nature and effect of the two punishments 
most frequently resorted to, in order to maintain good disci- 
pline. I refer to fines and suspensions. By the answer of 
the immediate Government to question twentyfirst, it appears, 
that the fines received during the last seventeen years, have 
amounted to $11,392, and consequently that the annual 
average of fines has been about §670. This is a large sum, 
certainly, but the most unpleasant circumstance about it is, 
that such fines do little or no good at any College. They 
were assessed at Cambridge almost entirely for negligence 
of different kinds, and in such a way, that they were hardly 
felt as a punishment. A few of them, as ordered by the 
laws, were heavy, like that of ten dollars for going to the 
theatre, and eight dollars for making any festive entertain- 
ment ; but such fines were rarely imposed, and by far the 
greater part of this ungracious branch of revenue was de- 
rived from the assessment of thirty three cents for absence 
from a lecture or recitation ; three cents for tardiness ; three 
cents for absence from prayers, two cents for tardiness, and 
similar petty expedients. From their very nature, therefore, 
the fines were little regarded ; and as far as they were 
noticed at all, they had the unfortunate air of seeming to be 
compensations for moral offences, rather than punishments ; 
and fell on the parent at a remote time, instead of falling at 
once on the offender himself. 

The punishment of suspension, too, seems to have proved 
no less unsuitable and inefficient. In the course of seven- 
teen years, we are told by the immediate Government, that 
suspension was resorted to one hundred and eightysix times. 
Now the young men suspended were generally sent to cler- 
gymen or other persons living in small towns in the interior, 
where the means, apparatus, and excitements for study, 
applied in Cambridge, were wanting ; where they could 
not have suitable instructors or instruction, in the different 
branches they were required to pursue, and where they were 
generally beset by the temptations to a small village dissipa- 
tion, which often sent them back to Cambridge less fitted 
for progress in their studies than w x hen they went away. 

Indeed the whole system of discipline seems to have been 

unsuccessful, chiefly, perhaps, because so much idle time 

was left on the hands of the students, and because so much 

more was done in the way of punishment than in the way 

2 



10 

of prevention. By the twentyfirst answer of the immediate 
Government, we are told, that in the course of the seven- 
teen years ending in 1S24, the whole nnmber of students 
expelled, rusticated, dismissed, and suspended, was three 
hundred and fiftyfour. Now, if we assume, that in the same 
time fourteen hundred persons were admitted to College, 
which is pn#ably an over estimate, it will give an average 
of one of the higher and more disgraceful censures to every 
fourth student. But the same student was, no doubt, some- 
times punished twice, or perhaps thrice, and I have reason 
to think, that just about one fifth of all, who have entered 
College, have been for many years disgraced by a severe 
punishment before they left it. This, however, is a great 
disproportion ; especially when it is considered that the num- 
ber punished necessarily falls short of the number deserving 
punishment ; and it proves plainly, that great and radical 
defects have existed at Cambridge, and satisfied the best 
friends of the College, that great and thorough remedies 
must be applied ; especially the natural and obvious remedy 
of diminishing the amount of authorised idleness. 

There have been other grounds of anxiety concerning 
Harvard College, which have been deeply felt by its friends, 
and which arise from the system it shares with the other 
Colleges of the country, or from its peculiar circumstances ; 
but there is not now time to notice them. The immediate 
Government or Faculty, acting as an executive body, has 
proved from its numbers, which have varied from ten to 
thirteen, cumbrous, troublesome, and inefficient. The silent 
permission, granted by usage, but contrary to law, for all the 
students to leave Cambridge when they please, provided 
they are present at their exercises, or will submit to be 
punished for absence from them, has been injurious to their 
characters, from the neighbourhood of the College to a con- 
siderable city. And the annual examinations of the classes 
deserve, and have long deserved, in Cambridge and all our 
Colleges, no other name than that bestowed on them by 
Professor Norton, who calls them ' a nugatory show.' These 
have all been occasions for anxiety, not because the students 
from Cambridge College have come forth worse educated 
than the students from other similar institutions, — for the 
whole country will bear witness to the contrary, — but, be- 
cause the defects just pointed out from official sources were 



11 

inherent in its system, and in the system of nearly or quite 
all our Colleges ; because they were growing with the growth 
and hardening with the age of the establishment at Cam- 
bridge ; and because they were obviously preventing a con- 
siderable proportion of its means from being applied to the 
proper use of the community, and to raise the standard of 
education and character among us. 

When the state of things just described, became even 
partially known, and long before the publication of the docu- 
ments, which now fully explain it, there was a general desire 
expressed by the friends of the College, that large changes 
should be effected in its modes of discipline and instruc- 
tion. Some arrangements were making to accomplish these 
changes ; but before they were completed, a new mode of 
reform was proposed, by which the powers of government 
and of change would be transferred to other hands, and 
which, therefore, it is necessary first to notice, as having 
precedence in the order of subjects. 

The management of the College at Cambridge has been 
heretofore in the hands of three bodies of men, who hold 
their authority under an act of the General Court, passed in 
1642; a charter given in 1650, with an appendix, dated 
in 1657; the fifth chapter of the Constitution of the Com- 
monwealth, made in 1780, and revised but not altered in 
relation to the College, in 1821 ; and an act passed in Feb- 
ruary, 1814, by the Legislature of the Commonwealth. 

The first of the bodies, who under the provisions of these 
acts, or by powers mediately derived from them, have had 
the management of the College, is, the Faculty or immediate 
Government, consisting of the President, and a part of the 
resident Instructers, amounting in all to from ten to thirteen 
persons, who have the entire discipline of the students in 
their hands, and have been obliged to meet together as an 
executive body, to decide on every punishment above a small 
fine ; a body, which, both in Cambridge and in other Colleges, 
is, too large for the prompt, consistent, and efficient discipline 
of such a collection of young men. 

Over the Faculty is, the Corporation, which derives its 
powers from the charter of 1650, the appendix of 1657, and 
the Constitution of 1780, and consists of the President, the 
Treasurer, and five ' Fellows' as they are technically called ; 
and of the gentlemen who now compose that body, three, 



12 

namely, Mr. W. Prescott, Judge Jackson, and the Rev. W. 
E. Charming, reside in Boston ; one, Mr. Justice Story, re- 
sides in Salem ; and one, Rev. E. Porter, resides in Rox- 
bury. The Corporation have the management of the funds 
and revenues of the College ; appoint its Instructors and 
other officers, and assign them their duties and pay; make 
laws for the government of the instructers and the students ; 
and fill vacancies in their own body ; but are restricted in 
their powers, and can do almost nothing without the ex- 
pressed assent of the Overseers. 

The Overseers are the last and highest body for the 
government of the College. They hold their power by virtue 
of the act of 1642, the Constitution of 1780, and the statute 
of 1814, and consist of the Governor of the Commonwealth, 
the Lieutenant Governor, the Council, the Senate, with their 
President, and the Speaker cf the House of Representatives; 
in all fiftythree persons ; together with the President of the 
College, and fifteen laymen and fifteen clergymen, elected, 
and to be elected, from the community at large, by the whole 
board ; so that out of eightyfour members of the upper board 
for the government of the College, fiftythree are annually 
elected by the people, and, therefore, completely and truly 
represent the public interest in the institution. 

The change it was proposed to effect in this organization, 
was to cause the Corporation, which now contains six non- 
resident members, than whom no more distinguished names 
can be found in the community to which they belong, to 
consist hereafter of reskrerrt Professors and Tutors, engaged 
in the instruction of the College, and receiving pay from its 
funds. For this purpose, on the second of April, 1824, eleven 
of the resident teachers, viz. five Professors engaged in the 
instruction of undergraduates, two engaged in the instruction 
of graduates, and four Tutors, offered a memorial to the 
corporation, preferring, as matter of chartered right, the 
claim of the resident instructers to be elected to vacancies 
in the board of the President and Fellows of the College. 
To this memorial the Corporation returned no formal answer, 
on the ground, as has been stated by the memorialists, that 
if the claim were well founded, the members of the Corpo- 
ration to whom it was sent, not being rightfully ' Fellows' of 
the College, were not competent to perform any act in its 
government; and could only resign their seats. On the first 



of June, nine of the same memorialists presented the same 
claim and memorial to the Overseers, giving as one reason 
for presenting it at that particular juncture, that they under- 
stood the Overseers were then engaged in considering im- 
portant measures relative to the organization of the College. 
This memorial was by the Overseers referred to a com- 
mittee, and so the matter rested for some months. 

The charter of 1650, under which chiefly the Corporation 
hold their powers, and the memorialists make their claim, * 
is construed as imposing the obligation of residence, and 
some other qualifications hereafter to be noticed, by the 
application to the members of the Corporation, of the term 
Fellow. This term was first used at Harvard College, as far 
as can now be ascertained, about the year 1647, three years 
before the charter was granted, and seems then, as the re- 
port of the Overseers explains it, to have denoted a person, 
chosen from among the graduates, who should give instruc- 

* The part of the charter that has been considered as touching this ques- 
tion, is as follows. 

' Whereas, through the good hand of God, many well devoted persons 
have been and daily are moved, and stirred up, to give and bestow, sundry 
gifts, legacies, lands, and revenues, for the advancement of all good litera- 
ture, arts and sciences, in Harvard College, in Cambridge, in the County of 
Middlesex, and to the maintenance of the President and Fellows, and for all 
accommodations of buildings, and all other necessary provisions, that may 
conduce to the education of the English and Indian youth of this country, 
in knowledge and godliness ; 

' It is therefore ordered and enacted by this Court, and the authority 
thereof, that for ihe furthering of so good a work, and for the purposes 
aforesaid, from henceforth, that the said College in Cambridge, in Mid- 
dlesex, in New England, shall be a corporation, consisting of seven persons, 
viz. a President, five Fellows, and a Treasurer or Bursar ; and that Henry 
Dunster shall be the first President, Samuel Mather. Samuel Danforth, Mas- 
ters of Art, Jonathan Mitchell, Comfort Starr, and Samuel Eaton, Bachelors 
of Art, shall be the five Fellows, and Thomas Danforth to be present Trea- 
surer, all of them being inhabitants in the Bay, and shall be the first seven 
persons of which the said corporation shall consist; and that the said seven 
persons or the greater number of them, procuring the presence of the Over- 
seers [rendered unnecessary by the appendix of 1G57,] of the College, and 
by their counsel and consent, shall have power, and are hereby authorised, 
at any time or times, to elect a new President, Fellows, or Treasurer, so oft 
and from time to time, as any of the said person or persons shall die or be 
remeved, which said President and Fellows, for the time being, shall forever 
hereafter, in name and in fact, be one body politic and corporate in law to 
all intents and purposes; and shall have perpetual succession ; and shall be 
called by the name of President and Fellows of Harvard College, and shall 
from time to time be eligible as aforesaid.' 

Then follows the power to hold real estate, be sued, and have a com- 
mon seal, with the other powers necessary to constitute a corporation for 
such purposes; but nothing, I believe, that has been cited in the quesion of 
fhe qualifications of Fellowe. 



14 

tion to the students committed to his care, and receive a 
stipend; but by an entry of the 6th of May, 1650, it is 
apparent that there were already Fellows, who were not 
Tutors 5 and by a letter of Edward Randolph, dated in 1676, 
it is apparent, that there were Fellows who were not mem- 
bers of the Corporation. There were Fellows, therefore, 
before the year 1650, who had no corporate rights whatso- 
ever, and there were Fellows, after 1650, who had stipends 
and gave instruction, but yet did not become members of the 
Corporation under the charter then granted. These are the 
Fellows, who, in the loose language of the early and imper- 
fect records, or the votes and orders of the General Court, 
for the first fifty years of the existence of the College, are 
called ' Fellows of the College,' ' Fellows on the place,' 
1 resident Fellows,' or as in Robert Keyne's bequest in 1653, 
which was for the benefit of the ' poorer sort of Fellows,' 
and the Penoyer fund given in 1670, for 'two Fellows and 
two scholars, who should be educated, brought up and main- 
tained' by it; — all of which it is plain refer to a sort of bene- 
ficiaries and dependents on the College, who were, no doubt, 
eligible to the Corporation, like any other citizens ; but who 
were, by no means, ex vi termini, members of the Corpora- 
tion under the charter of 1650. Indeed, the very number 
of these Fellows was uncertain, though the charter of 1650 
had settled the exact number of corporate Fellows ; for by 
an order of the General Court of 1653, we find a committee 
raised among other things ' to consider what number of Fel- 
lows may be necessary for carrying on the work of the 
College, and what yearly allowance they shall have and how 
to be paid.' 

But certain persons were named (Fellows of Harvard Col- 
1-ge) by the charter of 1650, and, as will be seen by reference 
to the document, designated neither as residents in Cam- 
bridge, nor as Tutors ; but simply as ' inhabitants in the 
Bay,' and without any sort of restriction upon them as to the 
qualifications of their successors through all future time. 
That any one of these five persons named as Fellows in the 
charter, was a resident and a tutor at the time it was granted, 
is not certain. It is probable, however, that one or two of 
them were. It is incredible that all five were, because the 
whole number of students was only about thirty, and the 
College was so very poor at that time, that it cannot r.ea- 



15 

sonably be supposed five teachers were added to the Pre- 
sident. From 1650 till 1672, I am not aware, that any 
means exist for ascertaining who were members of the Cor- 
poration. But in 1672, a new charter was offered, and a 
new series of persons named as ' Fellows.' Where all of 
them resided, or what were their occupations, cannot now 
be known ; but three of them were settled clergymen, and 
one of them, Samuel Danforth, who alone is described by 
the addition of ' a Fellow of the College,' was the only per- 
son then living who had been named in the former charter, 
and he was then, and had been from 1650, the minister of 
the Church in Roxbury.* 

From 1673, the records furnish means for tracing regu- 
larly the series of Fellows ; that is, from within twentythree 
years of the date of the charter ; and from that time until 

* There has been some discussion about the case of Samuel Danforth, 
and, therefore, it may be well to state the facts in it, 

1 May 12, 1650,' say the records of the Church in Roxbury, ' Samuel 
Danforth recommended and dismissed from Cambridge Church, and ad- 
mitted here ;' a change for which no good reason can be given but a change 
of residence, for it did not qualify him to administer the ordinances, which 
he could not do till he became a clergyman in the following September. 

May 31, 1650, the College charter was granted. 

Sept. 24, 1650. S. Danforth was ordained at Roxbury. 

Oct. 8, 1672. Mr Danforth is described in the charter proposed to the 
College, as « Samuel Danforth, Fellow of the said College; and the only 
person so described, as well as the only person whose name occurs in both 
charters ; while Urian Oakes is described in the same charter of 1672, as 
: Pastor of the Church of Cambridge/ and Thomas Shepard as ' Teacher of 
the Church of Charlestown.' 

Oct. 19, 1674, in the College records we find, * this day died Samuel 
Danforth, Senior Fellow of the College.' 

To this state of the case, which will leave no doubt that Samuel Danforth 
was a member of the corporation from 1650 till his death, though residing 
in Roxbury, since there is no proof attempted that he resigned ; — to this 
state of the case have been objected the two following circumstances. 

First. In Johnson's Wonder Working Providence, (Hist. Col. N. S. VII, 
29,) it is said of S. Danforth, l he put forth many almanacs, and is now called 
to the office of a teaching elder in the Church of Christ at Roxbury, who 
was one of the Fellows of this College.' This appears to have been written 
in 1651. But it is easy to see that it refers to the time when Mr Danforth 
was a resident stipendiary of the College, and meant only that he had left 
the College ; not that he had resigned his place in the corporation. 

The other circumstance urged is a letter from Dr Hoar, dated March 27, 
1661, (Hist. Col. VI, 103,) speaking of Richardson's Tables, 'I know no 
way to recover them but of some that were of that society in former times, 
I suppose Mr Danforth, Mr Mitchell and others have them.' This seems 
really to have no bearing on the question. It may as well refer to the times 
when these persons were undergraduates, as to any other. 

Both the passages cited are evidently written loosely, and such language 
cannot affect the plain statements contained in records and charters. 



16 

the present, there have never been less than two nonresident 
Fellows ; a large portion of these one hundred and fiftythree 
years, there has been a majority of nonresidents ; and during 
twentyseven years of it, all have been nonresidents. It may 
be doubted, whether, on the score of mere usage, a much 
stronger case has often been made out; especially when the 
great length of time is considered, and when it is recollected 
that the whole question turns on the meaning and construc- 
tion of a single word. So long a usage would have changed 
even the popular meaning of almost any word in the diction- 
ary, much more its technical and legal value and import. 

But though the question may be safely left, if anything 
can be considered safe, on the ground of a usage traced up 
as far as regular records will go, and very near to the source, 
there is yet another ground even stronger, if stronger can be 
desired. By the constitution of Massachusetts, formed by 
the people in 1780, it is declared 'that the President and 
Fellows of Harvard College in their corporate capacity, and 
their successors in that capacity, their officers and servants, 
shall have, hold, use, exercise, and enjoy all the powers, 
authorities, rights, liberties, privileges, immunities, and fran- 
chises, which they now have or are entitled to have, hold, 
use, exercise, and enjoy. And the same are hereby ratified 
and confirmed unto them, the said President and Fellows 
of Harvard College, and to their successors, and to their 
officers and servants respectively, forever.' This is the 
highest sovereign sanction. No legislature, no court of jus- 
tice, no body of men existing in the state, may contradict 
or disturb this ; for by the same instrument and the same 
tenure, they hold whatever powers they may possess. Now, 
when the five Fellows of Harvard College were thus solemn- 
ly and completely confirmed in all they possessed, four 
of them were neither residents nor instructors. Moreover, 
this full confirmation has been again and again recognized 
by different legislatures in many acts, and renewed by the 
whole body of the people, in the convention of 1821, when all 
the Fellows were nonresident. The argument is irresistible. 

And here it would be perfectly safe to stop, but, perhaps, 
the subject may be made somewhat more clear, though the 
argument cannot be rendered more certain, by an examina- 
tion of the principal points urged by the memorialists. ' The 
memorial,' as it has been declared by the report of the com- 



17 

mittee of the 0\ r erseers, ' is, throughout, in form and in sub- 
stance, a claim of right' ; and its purport is to show, that the 
Fellows recognised in the charter of 1650, ought to be resi- 
dent in Cambridge, ought to be instructers or governors of 
the college, and ought to receive a stipend from the funds of 
the college. These qualifications, it is contended, are in- 
volved in the very meaning of the word Felloto, as used in 
the charter, and on the definition of this word, the whole ar- 
gument rests. To the three parts of this definition, there- 
fore, I will now, for a moment, turn. 

The first question is, whether a Fellow of Harvard Col- 
lege, under the charter, is bound to residence. The charter 
is silent, and, of course, it is a mere question of interpreta- 
tion. The arguments of the memorialists are, that, in the 
English universities, where many of the founders of Harvard 
College were educated, this was a part of the meaning of 
the word Fellows, all of whom, by the laws of their founda- 
tion, are represented, as residing within the walls of their res- 
pective colleges ; that the ancient usage under the charter 
of Harvard College, was the same ; and that the words of 
the charter, fixing the college as a corporation in Cam- 
bridge, make it essential that the members of the corporation 
should be there resident. 

As to the meaning of the word, Fellow, in the English col- 
leges, it is various, according to the various terms and con- 
ditions prescribed in their different statutes and charters. 
But unless residence is particularly prescribed, it is not ne- 
cessary. This might be proved by many decisions of the 
courts of law in Great Britain, where the question has inci- 
dentally or directly occurred ; but one case from the high- 
est authority is sufficient. Lord Camden says, in Hayes vs 
Long, 2. Wilson, 310, ' great numbers of persons remain on 
the books, long after they have left the university, on pur- 
pose to vote for members, he. Many who are Fellows of 
colleges never go thither at all. I myself was one for a long 
time, and never went there at all.' The same may be prov- 
ed by usage. The registers of Oxford go back to about the 
year 1500, and immediately after that, we find Grocin and 
Linacer nonresident Fellows. The statutes of Jesus Col- 
lege, made somewhat later, by commission from Queen Eli- 
sabeth, recognise the existence, at that time, of a majority 



IS 

•of nonresident Fellows.* The succession could easily be 
traced without interruption down to the present time. Sir 
William Jones was a Fellow at Oxford and a Lawyer in 
London, many years ; and so was Sir William Blackstone. 
The Ratcliffe Fellows are even compelled to travel, and be 
absent from the kingdom a certain number of years. There 
is now alive, in the state of Maine, a Fellow of Cambridge, 
who has lived in Maine, and received his stipend nearly 
thirty years ; and there is a Professor in the University of 
Virginia, who was elected to a Fellowship with a large in- 
come, after it was known he was bound to residence in the 
United States. The argument therefore from the use of the 
term in the English universities fails, for residence is cer- 
tainly not necessary to constitute a Fellow there. f 

As to the question of usage at Harvard, under the charter 
of 1650, I have already considered it. There was, it may 
almost be said with absolute certainty, one, and perhaps 
more than one, nonresident among those named in the char- 
ter ; but, from the moment the records will furnish informa- 
tion, or for above an hundred and fifty years, there is an 
unbroken usage in favor of nonresidents. This is certainly 
enough, as far as usage is concerned. 

But there is another ground taken, to show that the Fel- 
lows of the corporation should be resident. It is said that 
since the words of the charter are, ' the college in Cam- 
bridge shall be a corporation consisting of seven persons,' 
that conformably to the charter, it is in Cambridge these 
seven persons must be found resident. This implies, of 
course, that the president and treasurer are bound to' resi- 
dence, which I believe is by no means insisted upon in the 
memorial. But, whatever it implies, it is simply a mistake 
in point of law. Nothing is better settled than that a cor- 
poration, like that of Harvard College, has no' place of com- 
morancy, although the corporators may have. 2. Mass. Rep. 
544. Take the case of Dartmouth College, which being a 
similar institution, and having a very long charter drawn with 
great technical skill, may be considered a case singularly in 

* It is declared there are eight Fellows then in the corporation, *et illi ita 
locis disjuncti sunt ut sine suae salutis dispendio, in dictum collegium con- 
venire nequeunt.' 

t See note (A.) at the end. 



19 

point. The charter of this college first declares, that 
* there shall be a college erected in our said province of 
New Hampshire, by the name of Dartmouth College,' and 
then provides that ' there shall be in said Dartmouth Col- 
lege a bod/ politic consisting of trustees of Dartmouth 
College.' This is a stronger case than the charter of Har- 
vard College, as to the residence of the members of the 
corporation ; and yet seven of the twelve trustees named in 
this very charter, are designated in it as inhabitants of Con- 
necticut, and the first meetings of the board were held in 
that province. The directors of a bank in Boston, may all 
live out of town, and hold legal meetings out of town ; and 
manufacturing companies established in particular places in 
the interior, do actually hold their meetings, both of stock- 
holders and directors, in Boston, and transact there most of 
their corporate business.* 

Indeed, both by the example of the English colleges, by 
construction of law, and by usage, it seems to be plain, that, 
to be a Fellow within the meaning of the charter of Harvard 
College, residence in Cambridge is not necessary. f 

* It might be curious enough, under such a construction of the law, as has- 
been insisted on, to inquire, where the members of a corporation are requir- 
ed to reside described in the charter of Ail Souls College, Oxford, 1437, as 
Collegium animarum omnium defunctorum Oxonii. 

t Some other arguments have been adduced to show, that residence is im- 
plied in the word Fellow, in the charter of 1650 ; but, I think, they can have 
very little weight. 

The first is, the use of the word ' Maintenance' in the preamble to the 
charter, where it is said that ' sundry gifts,' &c. had been bestowed, 'for 
the maintenance of the President and Fellows.' But these are the ' poorer 
sort of Fellows' mentioned elsewhere ; not the corporate Fellows. They 
are the ' certain Fellows and poor scholars,' for whom the contribution of 
1652 was made; they are the Fellows contemplated in the order of court of 
1653, appointing, among other things, a committee ' to consider what num- 
ber of Fellows may be necessary for carrying on the work of the college, and 
what yearly allowance they shall have, and Jjow to be paid,' and, therefore, 
not the corporate Fellows whose number was before settled by the charter 
of 1650; in short, they are persons, who were to be educated, or, in some 
instances, to teach ; but not the persons who were, from this circumstance, 
to govern all the affairs of the college. 

The second is, a form of induction used for Fellows, before the date of 
the charter, which seems to imply that the Fellow inducted by it, should re- 
side. But there is no proof attempted, that this formula has been used since 
the charter was given ; and, therefore, it has nothing to do with the Fellows 
of the corporation. 

The third argument is, the Tutor's Pasture, which is said to have been 
given by a formal deed, in 1645, to the Fellows, and that, until very lately, 
it has been enjoyed by the Tutors, and that tradition has settled it to be the 
Tutor's Pasture- But, if there be precisely such a grant, of which I am 



'26 

The next question, therefore, is, whether the Fellows' 
mentioned in the charter are bound to be instructers or gov- 
ernors. Here again the charter is silent ; and the memori- 
alists appeal to the meaning of the word in the two English 
universities, and to the ancient usage in Harvard. 

But the English Fellows receive stipends for their sup- 
port, that they may have leisure for study, and that they may 
be able to learn, and not because they are required either to 
teach or govern. Some, though compared with the whole 
number, a very few, may be tutors or professors ; but, if 
they are, it is because they are specially elected to be such, 
and not because their fellowships imply any such thing. 
Others cannot be teachers at the time they are chosen Fel- 
lows, as, for instance, the Fellows of King's College and 
Trinity Hall, Cambridge, who may be undergraduates, and 
some of the Fellows of Exeter College and New College, 
Oxford, who must be. So plainly is this principle recogni- 
sed, that Fellows are learners, and not teachers, that in Dr. 
Ayray's case, Coke's Rep. Part. XJ, p. 18, it is shown that, 
in the charter of Queen's College, Oxford, socii, fellows, and 
scholares, learners, are convertible terms ; and in the statutes 
of Trinity College, Cambridge, the Fellows are called socii 
scholares, associated learners, while the undergraduates are 
called, discipuli scholares, learners under discipline. 

But even the corporate rights are sometimes denied to the 
Fellows of the English universities. Thus, for instance, the 
government of Christ's Church College, Oxford, belongs ex- 
clusively to the Dean and Chapter of Christ's Church Ca- 

somevvhat doubtful, it was void from the first, and, therefore, cannot be cit- 
ed as proof, for the Fellows were not a body capable of receiving and hold- 
ing real estate, till five years afterwards. 

The last argument is, that individuals little knoion were taken for the first 
Fellows, and that no other reason than their residence, can be given for the 
selection of such persons. But the college was so humble a school, that, in 
1G50, it seems to have been difficult to get suitable persons to serve in the 
corporation ; for, in an order of the court, passed on the petition of Henry 
Dunster for this very charter of 1650, the court answer, they will grant one, 
provided ' meet persons be presented,' ' neither magistrates who are to be 
judges in points of difference, that shall or may fall out, nor ministers, who 
arc unwilling to accept thereof,' &c. &c. Ind'eed, it can hardly be doubted 
that young men little known, were chosen, because no others so good could 
be found, who would accept ; and not because they lived in Cambridge, or 
taught there. 

These four are all the remaining reasons that I have observed on this sub- 
ject, and they seem quite inconsiderable, either taken severally or in the ag- 
gregate. 



21 

thedral, and not to the Fellows of the college. Moreover r 
if the original foundation of a college prescribed a limited 
number of fellowships and others are afterwards added, the 
Fellows thus engrafted on the old stock, have no privileges 
in the government. This may be seen in 3. Atk. 662, 666, 
674, Attorney General vs Talbot, in Burr. Rep. I. 202, 203, 
and in Rex vs Bishop of Ely, 2. Term Rep. 296. It has, 
also, been ruled in the case of Peter House, Cambridge, 
where eight out of twentysix Fellows, have no corporate 
rights or authority ; no office or voice in the affairs of the 
college, 2. Term Rep. 291. And the case of Magdalene 
College, Cambridge, is a very remarkable one, because there 
four Fellows have the control and government of the college 
and thirteen are without it. Of course, the case of the Eng- 
lish universities cannot be brought to prove that no person 
can be a Fellow, who has not a share in the government of a 
college. 

Nor is there better ground for it in the usage at Harvard. 
When the charter was given, and till 1672, the number of 
students, as far as the catalogue will inform us, averaged 
under thirty ; and, since the President acted as a teacher at 
that time, it is incredible, that five other persons were ap- 
pointed and paid from the revenues of the college to teach 
and discipline these thirty young men. But, what is more 
to the point, perhaps, we find it all but absolutely certain, 
that one of the Fellows named in the charter, was not a 
teacher or resident governor, and we find it quite certain, 
that there has been an uninterrupted succession of such Fel- 
lows from as far back as the records will lead us. 

The last part of the definition of Fellow of Harvard Col- 
lege contended for, is, that he should receive a stipend from 
the funds of the college ; and the ground taken to establish 
it is the same as before, the usage of the English universi- 
ties and the ancient usage at Harvard College. 

That the English Fellows receive stipends, there is no 
doubt ; some very small, only £5 or £6 per annum, and 
others rising to several hundred, but amounting, taken one 
with another, to about £25 or £26 a year. 3. Atk. Rep. 
669. But the object of these stipends is entirely different 
from any thing contemplated in the charter of Harvard Col- 
lege. The Fellows in the English colleges receive their sti- 
pends on condition of devoting themselves to learning ; and 



9. ft 



some particular branch is generally required, as the civil 
law, philosophy, or most frequently, divinity. But nothing 
of this sort is intended or intimated by the charter of 1650, 
and the whole memorial disavows it. In speaking of the 
English colleges, Lord Holt says, Phillips vs Bury, 2. Term 
Rep. 353, ' There is no difference between a hospital and 
college, but in degree. A hospital is for those that are poor, 
and mean, and low, and sickly. A college is for another 
sort of indigent persons ; but it hath another intent, to study 
and breed up persons in the world, that have not otherwise 
to live.' The duties and studies, therefore, of the persons 
who are thus to be assisted and bred up, are often prescrib- 
ed to them. In All Souls College, twentyfour of the forty 
Fellows are required to study philosophy and divinity, and 
the remaining sixteen are required to study civil and com- 
mon law. Trinity College, Oxford, is declared to be for 
poor and indigent scholars in the University, twelve of whom 
are called Fellows, and to be educated in the study of phi- 
losophy and divinity, and eight called Scholars, to be edu- 
cated in logic and rhetoric. And so on, probably, of every 
other college at the two universities. Indeed, the more it is 
examined, the more it will be found, that the object of fel- 
lowships in the English colleges was and is, uniformly, to 
educate the incumbents, whether present in the colleges or 
elsewhere, and that the stipends are given to further this de- 
sign, as the counsel, arguendo in 4. Mod. Rep. 84, says, 
* the fellowship of a college is for a private design, only to 
study.' Now it has never been imagined that the design of 
the charter of 1650, was to create five or seven Fellows, 
who should receive stipends to enable them only to study ; 
and therefore the argument for stipends, as far as it is deriv- 
ed from any supposed analogy in the case of the English 
colleges, is without foundation. 

The usage at Harvard is equally plain, so far as the re- 
cords go. It is incredible that there were five stipendiaries, 
besides the president, to so humble and poor a school as this 
was in 1650 ; it is probable one individual must have been 
in a situation, where he certainly would not receive a salary 
from the college ; and it is certain that there is a usage of 
above a hundred and fifty years to the contrary. 

And this concludes what I had proposed to say on the three 
parts of the definition of a Fellow at Harvard College ; and 



23 

from -considering the whole, there seems hardly the shadow 
of a ground for claiming, either that our Fellows should be 
resident, that they should be teachers or governors, or 
that they should be stipendiaries, — much less, certainly, is 
there any ground that they should be all three togeher. 

It should not be forgotten, however, that this word, Fellow, 
is a term known in many other places besides colleges. 
* The President and Fellows of the Royal Society,' consti- 
tute a body as well recognised by law and charter, as ' the 
President and Fellows of Magdalene College,' and if there 
had been an invariable legal meaning to the word, beyond 
the obvious one of associate, it must have belonged to each 
of these Fellows equally. We have too, by law and char- 
ter, ' Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Scien- 
ces,' as well as ' Fellows of Harvard College,' and yet 
they have nothing but their association, in common. Nor 
are the qualifications of Fellows at the different English col- 
leges so settled among themselves, that any strict conclu- 
sions can be drawn, as to the meaning the term should have 
in any particular case. Some Fellows possess corporate 
rights and great power ; others have neither. Some Fel- 
lows must be born in a particular county ; and others may 
be born anywhere in the kingdom or out of it. Some Fel- 
lows are bound to reside in their colleges ; others are not ; 
and yet others are compelled to quit the kingdom and reside 
abroad. Some Fellows must be in orders ; others are re- 
quired not to be. Some must have taken degrees ; others 
must not ; and others become Fellows merely by entering 
as undergraduates and claiming the privilege. In short, 
there is as great a variety in the meaning of the word, Fel- 
low, in the different colleges of the English Universities on 
most points, as can well be imagined. But there are two 
points on which, they all agree, and these points, it is 
singular enough to observe, amidst so much citation of 
the English colleges as authorities, for a very exact meaning 
of the word at Harvard, have never been claimed to be es- 
sential or even desirable, in the definition of a Fellow of 
Harvard College. These two points are, first, that the per- 
son created a Fellow, should receive a stipend in order that 
he may have leisure to acquire knowledge wherever he may 
be ; and second, that he may continue a Fellow only during 
his celibacy, it being supposed that the cares of a married 



li 

life will interfere with that acquisition of knowledge, to pro- 
mote which the stipend is given. 

The truth is, that the case of the Fellows of the English 
Colleges, has nothing to do with that of the Fellows under 
the charter of Harvard College of 1650 ; and, moreover, it 
is also true, that the meaning of the word Fellow, is so 
widely different in different acts and charters of incorpora- 
tion, that its particular signification in any one, beyond 
that of a simple associate, must be determined by the 
words of the charter or act itself. Now it has never 
been supposed that there are any express words in the 
charter of 1650, binding the Fellows of Harvard College to 
residence, to receive stipends, and to be engaged in the gov- 
ernment or instruction of the institution ; and, therefore, the 
argument from the meaning of the word in the charter, falls 
to the ground, no less than the claim of right and of usage. 

The whole of this question, however, of chartered right 
and of construction, has been twice solemnly discussed and 
decided. Early in 1722, when four out of five of the Fel- 
lows w T ere nonresident, and a vacancy occurred by death, 
one of the tutors preferred a claim to the place. The cor- 
poration* however, chose a nonresident ; but the overseers 
refused to concur, a committee of their body assigning for a 
reason, that 'they judge it proper the vacancy should be 
filled by the election of a resident Fellow.' The corpora- 
tion considering it of particular consequence that the college 
should not be disturbed by quarrels, at that time, elected a 
tutor ; ' protesting against their acquiescence being made a 
precedent.' Some excitement grew out of this ; and June 
13, the Overseers addressed a memorial to the General 
Court, desiring an enlargement of the number of the Corpo- 
ration, and that, in so doing, ' regard be had to the resident 
Fellows or Tutors, that they may be of that number.' A 
committee of the General Court reported on the 28th of 
June an order, declaring it to be ' the intent of the said col- 
lege charter, that the tutors of the said college, or such as 
have the instruction and government of the students, should 
be the Fellows and members of the corporation of the said 
college.' This order was accepted both by the House and 
the Council ; but the Governor gave his assent to it, with a 
proviso inserted agreeably to the wishes of the council and 
the overseers, which made a reservation in favor of the rights 



25 

oi' the three nonresident Fellows then in the corporations 
•and thus defeated the main design of the whole movement. 

On this state of things, still greater excitement followed. 
President Leverett, a layman, and one of the wisest presi- 
dents the college ever had, declared himself entirely against 
the project, and the governor said, it would be ' fatal to the 
college' if it succeeded ; but, still, November 10, the House 
of Representatives reiterated the claim of the Tutors to be 
elected.- The Corporation asked to be heard, declaring the 
claim to be contrary to ancient usage ; a point then more 
easily settled than now. But they were refused this decent 
justice. Several other votes were passed in the same spirit ; 
but, at last, the Council did hear them on the 23d of August, 
1723 ; and the Corporation, who then possessed documents, 
which are now lost, made out their case so entirely to the 
satisfaction of the Council, that the Council nonconcurred, 
and rejected the vote they had themselves passed the year 
before, and the House, on their part, desisted from a pursuit 
in which they had but just before shown themselves so eager 
and even violent. It is not easy to see how the corporation 
could have had a success more marked and complete. The 
moment they were heard, they gained their cause. 

And here the question rested quietly for above a century, 
the Corporation consisting partly or entirely of nonresidents 
the whole time ; but, by the memorial of the 3d of April, 
1S24, the whole discussion was revived anew. After this 
memorial had been presented to the Overseers, a report on 
it was made, January 6, 1825, by Mr Hill of the Council, 
on behalf of the Committee appointed to consider the sub- 
ject, in which report it is maintained, that it is not necessary, 
by the charter or otherwise, that the Fellows of Harvard 
College be either resident in Cambridge, instructers or sti- 
pendiaries. The memorialists desired to be heard in reply. 
They were so heard on the 4th of February ; Professor 
Everett and Professor Norton appearing on their behalf. 
The discussion was very interesting, and one of the most 
thorough ever witnessed among us. It lasted three days. 
At the end of this time, the following resolutions were 
unanimously adopted at a remarkably full meeting of the 
Overseers. ' Resolved, that it does not appear to this Board, 
that the resident instructers in Harvard University have any 
exclusive right to be elected members of the Corporation. 
4 



20 

Resolved, that it does not appear to this Board, that the 
members of the Corporation forfeit their offices by not re- 
siding at College.' 

It may be added to this, that, as a legal question, few have 
ever been examined among us with more laborious care, or 
by persons better qualified to decide what is the law. In 
the Corporation, at the time, were Mr W. Prescott, Mr 
H. G. Otis, and Mr J. Davis, District Judge of the United 
States. In the Board of Overseers, Mr Justice Story, of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, delivered his opinion 
against the memorial in a long argument. He was suc- 
ceeded, on the same side, by Chief Justice Parker, of the 
Supreme Court of Massachusetts, Mr Justice Jackson, Mr 
F. C. Gray, and some other persons of distinguished talent. 
On the final question, not a voice was raised in the Board, or 
elsewhere, I believe, in favour of the memorial. The profes- 
sion, in particular, seemed unanimous on all the points ; and 
many years will probably elapse before any important ques- 
tion will be decided with such a great weight of legal talent 
and learning, after so long, so patient, and so interesting a 
discussion. 

The question of chartered right is now, therefore, no 
doubt, put at rest. And well it may be. A probable usage 
from the granting of the charter ; an unquestionable usage 
for above a century and a half; a direct and solemn confir- 
mation by the constitution ; many indirect confirmations by 
the acts of successive legislatures ; and all upon a mere ques- 
tion of the construction of a single word in an instrument, 
are sufficient to produce final certainty. To these, however, 
are now to be added the result of the protracted discussion, 
which has been gone through by the constituted authorities 
of the College ; the unanimous decision of the Corporation ; 
the unanimous decision of the Overseers, after hearing the 
memorialists ; and the hardly less unanimous decision of the 
entire community. It is extremely probable, therefore, that 
there will be peace and quiet on the matter for, at least, 
another century ; for it is hazarding little to say, that not a 
citizen of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts holds a foot 
of land by a better tenure and title, than the nonresident 
Fellows of the College hold their seats in its Corporation. 

But though it is thus certain there is no chartered right in 
the resident instructers to have a monopoly of the corporation 
within their own body ; and, though it is equally certain, that 



27 

those, who may be chosen from the community at large, are 
not bound to reside or instruct in Cambridge ; yet stifl there 
may be another important question. It may be of conse- 
quence, on grounds of general expediency, that the Corpo- 
ration should be composed of resident teachers, who, for 
this purpose, it has been emphatically said, would be practi- 
cal men ; men whose main business in life it would be to 
conduct the numerous, complicated, and important affairs of 
this very extensive establishment ; men whose reputation, 
happiness, and pecuniary interest are connected with its 
welfare ; and men, finally, who are likely to possess a fair 
average of the general qualities necessary for such places. 

One would think, however, that the qualities necessary to 
constitute a valuable and useful member of the Corporation 
of such a college, are very different from the qualities neces- 
sary to constitute a valuable teacher ; that he, who is a prac- 
tical and efficient man, in the one place, is not by any means 
certain to prove so in the other ; and that the duties of each 
place are sufficient for their respective incumbents. For an 
instructer in any of our colleges, who teaches faithfully as 
many hours in each day as may reasonably be expected from 
him, and gives all the attention and labour needful to do his 
part in preserving good discipline, and pure feelings and 
principles among those committed to his charge, need not 
be ambitious of any increase of his powers, or responsibili- 
ties. He has as much power as he can faithfully exercise, 
and as heavy duties as he can thoroughly fulfil. These 
duties, too, are very different, or, at least, are often very 
different from the cares and discussions necessary in the 
management of the funds, in preserving the external relations 
of the College, in selecting suitable teachers to fill vacancies, 
and in giving many of these teachers heavier labours and 
lighter salaries, than they would have taken, if the choice 
had been left to themselves. A person, it is obvious, may 
be eminently qualified for one of these places ; so well qual- 
ified, that it would be an injustice to the community, if it 
were not given to him, and yet be entirely unfit for the 
other. 

If one or two of the principal duties of the Corporation 
be now considered, this may be made more plain. They 
have the management of the funds of the institution ; and, it 
is certain, that retired scholars, living on salaries, are not 



28 

likely to be the most practical men, that could be found to 
make wise investments and arrangements of large property. 
Nor would they be likely to manage it so disinterestedly, 
either in relation to themselves, or to the majority of the 
teachers, who would not be members of the Corporation, as 
if they received no portion of the incomes they would be 
called to administer. On this point, the case of the English 
colleges is full of warning. Their corporations are so or- 
ganized, that nearly all the temptations, which would be 
constantly presenting themselves in our colleges, are at once 
excluded, since there is either a division of the income ac- 
cording to settled rules, which the incumbents cannot alter, 
or a regular stipend to each. Still difficulties, and great 
difficulties, have often arisen. The generation of incum- 
bents has often endeavoured to encroach on the property of 
the generation that was to follow them ; and the legislature 
and the courts of law have been compelled to be extremely 
vigilant to defeat the ingenuity of their selfishness. Three 
statutes were found necessary in a single reign ; and cases 
are scattered up and down in almost all the reports, which 
show, they have been continually disposed to take to them- 
selves more of the corporate property than belonged to them. 

But the case of the five Fellows of Harvard College, as 
the Corporation is now constituted, is above all such suspi- 
cion. They have no pretence whatever for taking any part 
of the incomes ; since they perform all their laborious duties 
without any compensation whatsoever ; and, of course, can 
gain nothing whatsoever, by the management and control of 
the funds. On this point, one fact is sufficient. In Mr 
Webster's report to the Convention, January 4, 1821, it is 
said, ' No delinquency to the amount of a single shilling, is 
known to have existed in any member of the corporation, or 
any of their agents or servants, from the time of the first do- 
nation, in 1636, to the present moment.'* Now, it seems 
very desirable and important to keep the management of the 
funds in hands, thus necessarily beyond all temptation, re- 
proach, or suspicion, which certainly could not be the case, 
if their management were committed to the persons, who are 
chiefly to be benefited by their own administration of them. 

Neither could it, be advisable to intrust a corporation of 

* The Treasury accounts, however, extend back, I believe, only about a cen 
tttry ; but the main property of the college has been acquired since. 



29 

teachers with the power of electing, removing and control- 
ling both themselves and all the other teachers. There 
would probably soon be an end of confidence, cordiality, 
and kind cooperation, if one fourth part of the instructers of 
a college not only had the right to assign and distribute the 
duties of the other three fourths, but were bound by their 
very offices to exercise a constant and careful supervision 
over them ; to impose on them unwelcome burthens, which 
they might not think fit to impose on themselves, and to 
deny them privileges, exemptions, and benefits, to which 
they may think themselves entitled. There could hardly be 
a surer foundation for discontents, differences, and quarrels, 
than such a distribution of powers would aptly furnish. And 
even the mere right of nomination has not been wisely used. 
While no salaries whatever were annexed to the places of 
teachers, the Senatus Academicus, or a single faculty, some- 
times nominated, at the older German universities, but so 
much injury and injustice came from it, that the privilege 
was, in time, taken away. At Jena it was so grossly abused, 
that it was given up by a sort of common consent. At Halle 
it was only permitted with great restrictions ; but, these not 
being found sufficient, it was abolished ; and at Gottingen. 
it is noticed among the wise arrangements of its wise founder, 
that he was taught by the experience of the older universi- 
ties of the country, and never permitted it at all. 

Indeed, on the whole of this point, of the expediency of 
having a corporation to consist of teachers, it is only neces- 
sary to use the words of the committee of the Overseers, 
who say in the conclusion of their report, they ' would sim- 
ply remark, that all the instructers are appointed and are re- 
moveable, and that their duties are prescribed, their com- 
pensation fixed, and their conduct regulated only by the vote 
of the Corporation, in concurrence with that of this board, 
[the Overseers,] and that, consequently, if they composed 
the whole Corporation, no act touching them could be pass- 
ed without their own consent, and thus, though they would 
not have unlimited power, they would, in effect, be exemp- 
ted from all responsibility and control.' Such a body of 
men would hardly fail, in the course of a few generations, to 
make a college, as much, and as truly a monopoly for their 
own benefit, as anything in the English universities. It is a 
body whose powers would be entirely against the genius of 



30 

our Institutions, and it would never be countenanced by 
public opinion. 

But there may be yet another form of the question, or 
rather, there may be yet a small point connected with it, that 
may be thought defensible, after all the rest have been aban- 
doned. It may be thought well that one or two members of 
the Corporation should be taken from among the resident 
teachers. But why a part, if not the whole ? If six or seven 
resident teachers are unsuitable persons to manage the 'funds, 
choose one another, and assign one another's duties, why 
should one or two be permitted to have a voice about it ? If 
all are too much parties concerned, how does one become 
disinterested ? Indeed if this be considered as a matter of 
principle, the case is very clear. A Professor or Tutor 
chosen into the Corporation, would be constantly acting in 
affairs, that concerned his own conduct and his own inter- 
ests ; voting over again upon his own votes ; discussing the 
relations and duties of other instructers, who are necessarily 
in such close connexion with himself, that frequently bur- 
thens cannot be imposed on them without lightening his own 
shoulders, nor privileges be enjoyed by him but at their ex- 
pense ; in short, deciding by direct influence and personal 
voice, on his own exemptions, his own labors, and his own 
income. Now it was found productive of much difficulty, 
and grave complaints have been made, that some of the Cor- 
poration have been members of the Overseers ; and yet this 
is a small matter compared with having an instructer in the 
Corporation, because the Overseers have no profit from their 
places, and no duties but attendance on their own meetings 
and the meetings of their committees ; yet this was well consid- 
ered an abuse, and a remedy has been wisely provided for it 
in Mr Justice Story's report. 

But, besides the question of principle, there would be 
great inconveniences and difficulties in the practice ; for if 
only one or two instructers came into the Corporation, they 
would probably not be found in full harmony with the re- 
maining members, and would besides be exposed particular- 
ly to the suspicions and jealousies of their fellow teachers, 
who could not be expected to regard their privileges and 
elevation with a very favorable eye. All this, however, is 
not a matter of speculation and conjecture, but of experience, 
settled in the whole course of legislation, and by the com- 



31 

mon sense of the country. For I do not know of a single 
College, whose charter indicates the propriety or necessity 
of choosing a teacher into the corporation, that manages its 
property and appoints its instructers ; and yet the last char- 
ter that was granted in New England, the charter, I mean, 
of Amherst College, which was passed in February, 1825, 
after much discussion, while the question about Professors' 
rights was at the height of its flood, should have contained 
some provision of this sort, if such a provision were as valu- 
able as it has been represented.* 

But this is not the strongest view of the ground of experi- 
ence ; for not only has the whole course of legislation and 
regulation been on one principle, but, after an actual experi- 
ment in several of our Colleges, the common sense and 
practical wisdom of the community has settled the usage, in 
a very marked manner, in the same way. For in six Col- 
leges, where alone I have obtained information, their earlier 
history shows that professors were, at first, occasionally 
chosen into their corporations ; and, in all of them, this prac- 
tice has since been discontinued, because more suitable per- 
sons could be found, and in two, or perhaps three, instances, 
the practice has been discontinued, because serious incon- 
veniences, troubles, and quarrels were found to arise from 
it. The expediency of not having Professors in the Corpo- 
ration, has, therefore, been repeatedly settled among us by 
experience ; sometimes by bitter experience. Indeed, I 
do not believe the practice ever prevailed anywhere, after 
the institution had become of sufficient consequence to en- 
gage the more prominent members of the community in its 
management, and it is so obvious an advantage to add their 
general influence, their talents, and their practical knowledge 
of affairs, to the interests of such an establishment, which al- 
ready has a clear and purchased right to all the time, all the 
powers, and all the experience of its resident teachers,f that 

* The Society for the Promotion of Theological Education in Harvard 
University, also, formed for itself a new constitution in November, 1824, 
pending these discussions and not unmindful of them ; yet it contains no 
provision to have a teacher or teachers in the board that controls all its 
affairs ; and, de facto, no teacher lias been chosen a member on the ground 
of expediency. 

tl mean by this, not merely what the instructers can do for the disci 
phne and teaching of the students, but I mean, that, from the verv nature ot 
their offices, they are bound and always have been bound in their individual 
as well as in their collective capacity, just as much as if they were corpora- 



Ji 

it is inevitable, setting aside the impropriety of choosing 
teachers into the board that is to elect, pay, and control 
teachers, that the common sense of the community and the 
course of legislation, should settle the question in the same 
way. 

The particular question, too, of the expediency of choos- 
ing a teacher into the Corporation at Cambridge, has been 
lately twice practically tried and disposed of. Two elec- 
tions have happened since these earnest discussions were 
had in the board of Overseers, and two persons neither resi- 
dents, teachers, nor stipendiaries have been chosen. In the 
first case, there was an opposition to the confirmation by the 
Overseers, arising, however, chiefly or entirely from causes, 
disconnected from the college. In the last case, where op- 
position from causes connected with the college, might most 
have been expected, the confirmation was all but unanimous. 
So that, for the future, we trust this point is put entirely 
at rest, and that, as it has not been brought up during the 
century past, so it will not be brought up again during the 
century to come.* 

But since it has been thus settled, so far as it is possible 
such a question should be settled, that the resident instructors 
of Harvard College have no exclusive right to be elected 
into the Corporation ; that no member of the corporation is 
bound to reside or teach in Cambridge ; and that it is inex- 
pedient to elect resident teachers into the corporation, it 
follows that the changes, which are to take place, will not 
extend to the Organization or powers of the different bodies, 
but be confined to discipline and modes of instruction. 

The project, however, for material changes in the condi- 
tion of Harvard College ; changes which must interest more 
or less other similar institutions, was entertained long before 
the memorial was written, and has never, for a moment, been 
abandoned. In the summer of 1821, the attention of the 
Corporation was seriously directed to this important subject; 
v and they sent to all the resident instructers and to some not 

resident, a large number of questions embracing whatever 

tors to furnish the corporation with all the information and opinions, the? 
think will promote beneficial changes or general improvement at the college. 
Moreover, this has been acted upon; how often I know not ; but, in the 
cases I have known, the communications have uniformly been respectfully 
received and carefully and kindly considered 
■ Sec note (B.) at the end. 



concerned the discipline, morals, and instruction of the stu- 
dents, to which each person was desired to give written an- 
swers. Many sent replies ; — some did not. But, on com- 
paring the answers, it was found, that hardly two persons 
were agreed on any one point, and that there was a great 
majority against any material change. A considerable num- 
ber, perhaps nearly all, were in favour of requiring the 
students to wear an uniform dress, and of making some attempt 
to reduce the expenses of those who set a bad example of 
extravagance. Regulations on both these points were, there- 
fore, made at once by the corporation ; but they went no 
further, because it was clearly the opinion of a majority 
of the teachers, that nothing further was needed. 

Here, therefore, the matter rested, until, in the spring 
of 1823, there were considerable disturbances at College, 
and about forty young men were dismissed in a very short 
time. This excited attention to the subject anew ; and, chiefly 
at the request of two resident instructers, a meeting of a few 
persons, much interested in the College, was called in July, 
1823, in Boston. At the particular instance of these two 
gentlemen, no resident officer was desired to attend ; but, 
as those who called the meeting were anxious to bring to- 
gether as much information concerning the College as was 
consistent with this restriction, two persons were invited who 
had recently been resident officers, two who were then non- 
resident officers, and four members of the board of Over- 
seers ; all of whom were among the faithful friends of the 
College, and all of whom had long been designated by the 
appropriate authorities as fitted to perform much higher du- 
ties to the College than were now imposed upon them. It 
was hoped to have had some members of the corporation 
present ; but the corporation had a meeting, on the same 
day, under circumstances which rendered the absence of 
any member from it impossible. It was hoped, too, to have 
had present one of the Overseers particularly connected with 
a resident officer ; but he was out of the Commonwealth. 
Nine, therefore, was the whole number that assembled. 
They inquired with great patience into the state of the Col- 
lege, for which they brought both personal and official infor- 
mation, and came to the conclusion that large changes were 
necessary. Such changes they thought could be best dis- 
ed and settled by a committee of the Overseers, and 
5 



34 

this committee they endeavoured to have appointed at the 
next meeting of the Overseers, and they succeeded. But 
they went no further. They settled no plan for a reform, 
and proposed none to the committee ; but the committe were 
met by a committee of the corporation and had before them 
the answers of the instructers to the questions of the corpo- 
ration, amounting to two or three hundred pages 5 so that 
there was no want of detailed information on the affairs of 
the College. Their meetings were long and laborious ; and 
their report differed essentially from the discussions and 
conversations at the meeting held in Boston in July. 

This report was presented, on the first of June, 1824, to 
the Overseers by the chairman of the committee, Mr Justice 
Story, now one of the Corporation ; and it proposed impor- 
tant changes, involving a great increase of labour and duties 
on the part of the instructers. It was, at once, partially dis- 
cussed ; but, as the Overseers did not think themselves pos- 
sessed of sufficient information concerning the state of the 
College, its means and management, another committee was 
appointed and requested to report at large on these points, 
and, also, on the modes of reform. This new committee, of 
which Mr John Lowell, long one of the most active and 
valuable members of the corporation, but now an Overseer, 
was chairman, made a report on the 6th of January, 1825, 
in which they laid before the board, with great detail and 
exactness, the ways and means of the College, the founda- 
tions and statutes of the different Professorships, a series of 
answers from the resident instructers, as a body, to a great 
number of questions proposed to them, and a code of Laws 
reported by the resident teachers to the Corporation, and 
by them given to the committee with a qualified assent ; so 
that the resident instructers having before sent in their indi- 
vidual opinions, and now sent in their opinions as a body, 
had furnished all the information and suggestions they thought 
desirable to both boards, as the foundation for future changes. 
It is difficult to conceive how these gentlemen could have 
been treated with more consideration ; and there is, I sup- 
pose, no reason to think they could have contributed more 
than they did, to the stock of information which was asked 
for. 

In their answers, however, and in the Laws suggested by 
them, the resident instructers propose few changes, and none 



that would much affect the old system. The vacations in 
their plan are not shortened ; the modes of instruction are 
not altered ; and the classes are still arranged alphabetically. 
The committee of. the Overseers thought greater changes 
necessary, and proposed to abolish the half holiday on Sa- 
turdays, and make the division of the students for instruction 
according to proficiency. But neither did the board of Over- 
- seers think these changes sufficient. The report of Mr Lowell, 
and that of Mr Justice Story, were both discussed together, 
in January last, with great thoroughness ; and the result was, 
that Mr Justice Story's report, which contemplated much 
larger changes than Mr Lowell's, prevailed by a great ma- 
jority, and was sent to the corporation, with a request, that 
they would embody in it such parts of Mr Lowell's as were 
not inconsistent with its general design, and report the whole 
to the Overseers, in the shape of some settled system for 
the management and instruction of the College. 

This was done in June last, and, having been sanctioned 
by the Overseers, is now before the public in a code of 
Laws, called " Statutes and Laws of the L T niversity in Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts," embraced in about forty pages and 
an hundred and fifty three separate regulations, which, on 
account of the important changes it proposes, and the influ- 
ence they may be likely to exercise, it is proposed now 
partly to examine. 

In the first place, then, Harvard College is now, by the 
eleventh section of its present laws, thrown open to all who 
wish to obtain any of the instruction it offers, whether they 
intend to seek an academic degree or not. This seems to 
be an important and beneficial regulation. An institution, 
while it is poor and has few teachers, may be compelled, from 
the necessity of the case, or from the great inconveniences 
attending a different mode, to confine its instructions to a 
strictly marked course, the end of which is limited by. a 
merely formal and unmeaning certificate. But a college of 
large means and numerous instructers, has no apology for 
thus embarrassing and restricting its usefulness. It should 
open its doors to all; for,. if its resources be properly and 
•efficiently applied, it has means of instruction for all. 
, Harvard College has abundant resources to render unne- 
ary the establishment of many public and private insti- 
tutions, like the agricultural schools, the law schools, and th' 



.30 

utlier establishments for special purposes, which like the 
admirable and flourishing institution at Gardiner, in Maine, 
are already beginning or begun among us also. These are 
not to be complained of; on the contrary, they are subjects 
of congratulation ; but it is obvious, that, if Harvard College 
would put forth its unused means, it could accomplish at 
once and better, much of what they can bring to pass, only 
slowly and imperfectly with great labour. For such instruc- 
tions must be had among us. The great increase of manu- 
facturing establishments, which all require men of peculiar 
skill and knowledge to manage them ; the improvement in 
all the arts, which supposes a corresponding improvement in 
the education of those who are devoted to them ; and the 
practical iutelligence and general character o£ the whole 
country, which demands, in its best sense, a liberal educa- 
tion for many persons in all classes of the community ; — all 
these have long since made requisitions on our best places 
for public education, which have not yet been fully answer- 
ed at any of them, but which the general uneasiness will not 
suffer to remain unanswered much longer. And it is at once 
the duty and the interest of a large institution like Cam- 
bridge, to meet this demand ; to make its resources minis- 
ter freely to a much wider usefulness than is now thought 
of; and to extend effectual instruction to portions of society 
that now never resort there ; for, while it is conferring all 
these benefits, it will, of course, be increased in the number 
of its students, and be strengthened in the interests and 
good will of the community, by having its basis so much 
more broadly and firmly laid in the very constitution of our 
society. 

In the second place, the vacations are much better arrang- 
ed ; for the longest is taken from the cold season, when 
the minds of all are more disposed to exertion, and pla- 
ced in the hottest part of the year, when intellectual labour 
is the most wearisome. But, besides this, the vacations 
are shortened. The whole of that allowed to the Seniors 
exclusively, is taken away, and the others are reduced by 
three weeks. This diminishes the whole amount of vaca- 
tions, holidays, and half-holidays, to fifteen and an half 
weeks per annum ; an amount which still seems too great 
for the authorised idleness of such a body of young men, at 
the very best period of their lives, and an amount, too, 



wlii. i \ or \\ isc, when «i is recollect 

thai nothing like it is allowed to these young men in the pre- 
paratory schools before the) ent< r college, and that they 
desire nothing like it afterwards, either when they are study- 
their professions or when they arc entered into the busi- 
- and cares of the world. It is to be hoped, therefore, 
that, at all our colleges, the vacations will be shortened; for 
they are now among the most obvious means by which studi- 
ous habits are broken up and dissipation of mind introduced 
in their st< 

But, at any rate, it is presumed the students will be kept 

with greater >s in Cambridge then they have been 

l>\ the third section of chapter filth, in the old 

is provided, that no student shall be absent a clay 

or part of a day without leave. This law has, for a consid- 

>le number of years, been totally disregarded both by offi- 

s and students. For if a student attended his exercises 

ami prayers, or submitted to the punishment for nonattend- 

ance, nothing more has been required of him, even if it were 

known that he was out of town. The consequence has been 

that many have daily left Cambridge to ride or to enjoy some 

kind of dissipation inconsistent with studious habits ; and on 

Saturdays, the college has been a deserted place, and the 

more fashionable streets in Boston have been fdled with 

academic dresses. This is a great abuse and contrary to 

an express provision of law ; and, as is obvious, in the case 

of a college near a considerable capital, must have been a 

fertile source of dissipation and idleness. 

But, besides these absences, of which no notice has been 
en, the absences which have been marked and either ex- 
cused or censured, amounted for three years to a little more 
and a half per annum for each student. This 
from the twelfth answer of the immediate govern- 
nt. Now, during these three years, the average of stu- 
dents was two hundred and sixtyseven ; and the days in 
« n to study were about two hundred and eleven. 
This i out twelve students absent from college each 

day, on an average of the three years; a number, which, to 
the least, what alarming. At West Point, during 

seat pari of every year, not a single student is absent, 
li for tin. during which alone any data have been 

ined, the greatest number absent on any one day. undei 



38 

all pretences, was three. And yet at West Point, they have, 
properly speaking, no vacations, and the unnoted absences, of 
which hundreds have occurred every week at Cambridge, 
are absolutely unknown. On this point, indeed^I think a 
thorough reform at Cambridge important. The students 
must be kept more exactly within the precincts of the Col- 
lege, — much more exactly ; or all attempts to raise the 
standard of knowledge and scholarship fail of course ; for if 
the students are not there and there constantly enough to be 
more interested in their studies than in anything else, it 
matters little what means and apparatus for instruction may 
be accumulated, for they must lose much of their effi- 
ciency. 

A third important change, and one which may be useful 
in many colleges, is that introduced by the fiftyeighth, six- 
tieth and sixtythird sections of the new laws, which provide, 
that the instruction given at College shall be given by de- 
partments ; and that the students shall, to a certain degree, 
have a choice in the studies they are to pursue. For the 
branches of knowledge professed at Cambridge, which were 
originally few and humble, are now grown to be so numer- 
ous and important, and may be so easily extended, that the 
old principle of requiring every student to pass through the 
hands of every instructer can no longer be wisely applied, 
since the time for the whole academic life has not been 
pi otj acted. That this would probably be the result at some 
time or other, may have been foreseen from the very first ; for 
it is apparent, that, if all the students were destined to pass 
in all future time, through the hands of every teacher, 
and the circumstances of the college should occasion a large 
increase in the number of teachers, then, at some time or 
other, there must be more teachers then the system could em- 
ploy, and the students must be permitted, at least within certain 
limits, to choose their studies ; or else the appropriate bene- 
fit to be derived from the increase of instructers must be 
lost. That Cambridge is already arrived at this result, is 
evident from the fact gathered out of official documents, that 
four teachers give just about three quarters of the whole in- 
struction received by undergraduates, while the remaining 
quarter part is distributed among eleven ; and that, even on 
this arrangement, unequal and disproportionate as it is, it 
has been necessary in more then one branch, either to leave 



39 

a choice or to exact nothing at all. Such a system, of 
course, neither gives employment to the talent it pays for 
among the instructers, nor such a beneficial choice to the 
students, as will enable them to derive the benefit they 
ought to derive from any one branch. 

These evils, it is apparent, may be avoided by a judicious 
and effective division of the instruction given at any large col- 
lege, into separate departments, while some advantages may 
be gained which are now, perhaps, nowhere enjoyed. For, 
in the first place, the teacher at the head of one of these 
departments, would be to a considerable degree responsible 
for its management and success, for the character and 
faithfulness of the instructers associated, with him, and for 
the progress of the students entering it, as he would now 
have an opportunity to exercise a constant supervision over 
the whole, and better means to turn the capacity of each in- 
dividual, however humble or elevated, to the best account. 
In the next place, such an arrangement ought to lead to 
anoths* improvement ; for it would permit each department 
to be so adjusted, as that each individual devoting himself to 
its studies, should, according to his capacity, possess himself 
of an entire subject, rather than be merely examined, as he 
has been, in certain books, and so left ; for it is of little con- 
sequence, that a young man should recite the Collectanea, if 
he fail to learn Greek, or recite Brown's Philosophy with 
verbal exactness, if he fail to strengthen his intellectual fac- 
ulties for purposes of reasoning, or do not gain an useful 
knowledge of metaphysics. Yet these faults are certainly 
obvious enough at all our colleges, as well as at Cambridge ; 
for we believe, that every where the division of studies is 
made by books rather then by the purposes for which those 
books should be read and studied. Finally, such a choice 
of studies, as is implied by the division into departments, 
would much increase the interest of the students in their oc- 
cupations, and tend to make the knowledge they acquire 
more valuable for their future purposes in life. And, why 
should not the unused means of the College be employed r 
And why should not the student or his friends determine in a 
greater or less degree, what studies he shall pursue, since 
more may be offered to him then it is possible he should 
pursue profitably ? It were to be wished, indeed, that the 
choice could be left without limitation, and that the period 



40 

passed at College could be thus more intimately connected 
with the remainder of life, and rendered more directly use- 
ful to it ; but this, perhaps, is not yet possible with us, 
though it is actually doing in the University of Virginia, and 
will soon, it is to be hoped, be considered indispensable 
in all our more advanced colleges. 

A fourth important change is made by the sixtyfirst sec- 
tion of the new Laws, and provides that the divisions of the 
classes for recitation and teaching shall be made according 
to proficiency ; and that each division thus made shall be 
carried forward as rapidly as may be found consistent with 
a thorough knowledge of its subjects and studies. This 
may be regarded, as the broad corner stone for beneficial 
changes in all our colleges ; and as a change to which all 
must come so fast as their means will permit them. For it 
is a plain injustice, which nothing but the necessity of the 
case can excuse, to give a young man of high powers and 
active industry no more and no other means of improvement 
than are given to the idlest and dullest in a class of sixty 
or seventy. Every student has a right not only to hasten 
forward as fast and as far as his talents and industry will 
carry him without any limit or hindrance whatsoever ; but if 
the institution, where he is educated, possess the means, he 
may claim and the community may claim for him, that he 
should be helped forward with appropriate instruction at 
every step of his progress. It is a right, which all enjoy 
in good preparatory schools before they resort to college ; 
and it is a right of which no man will permit himself to be 
easily defeated, when he is afterwards entering into his pro- 
fession or into the business and interests of the world. 

The benefits from such a change are apparent. The 
time of all the students may be better filled up ; and all may 
be appropriately assisted and excited with instiucters in eve- 
ry part of their studies. Discipline may be improved and 
made easier, for the best moral discipline of students is that 
which is laid in the careful and wise occupation of all their 
time and powers ; and the healthiest reward for exertion 
may be offered to all, since all will feel that acknowledged, 
open progress, which was the motive that governed their 
best efforts at school, and which is the motive, that will vin- 
dicate its power again as soon as they emerge into the cares 
and struggles of life. 






41 

But besides these great advantages, the number of stu- 
dents that would recite together, being small, and those be- 
ing associated for instruction in each branch, who from talent 
and industry belong together, the recitations, instead of be- 
ing dull examinations restricted to a given book, may be made 
interesting as sources of instruction on the subject itself; 
the mind of the teacher being made to act directly on the 
minds of his pupils in familiar teaching and illustration, for 
which, under the present awkward division into alphabetical 
classes, no opportunity exists. 

Moreover, with a division of the students according to prc- 
ficiency, it will be more difficult to organise extensive com- 
binations or rebellions, which now arise almost entirely from 
their arrangement into large classes ; an arrangement, which 
makes no distinction between the industrious and the idle, 
the dull and those of uncommon talent, the orderly and the 
turbulent ; but which often gives most influence to those who 
employ their time and powers chiefly in acquiring and using 
it badly. Now, on the present plan, if faithfully executed, 
no such division of classes can exist as has heretofore been 
recognised ; and precisely the same individuals will, proba- 
bly, be seldom brought together in two branches of instruc- 
tion. The intelligent and laborious, therefore, standing by 
themselves and united among themselves in the respective 
departments and divisions, will not come into subjection to 
an unworthy majority as they often do now at all our colle- 
ges ; while, at the same time, these who would recite to- 
gether in one branch, as for instance mathematics, being 
little likely to meet in exactly the same relations for their 
exercises in Greek or Latin, the very principle on which 
combinations and rebellions are now organised would be al- 
most entirely unfelt. 

In fact, this arrangement of the students according to 
merit and character rather than according to the alpha- 
bet, with facilities and inducements for all to advance as fast 
iind as far as possible ; or, in other words, the constant and 
iaithful occupation of the time of each student, under the 
supervision of a teacher, seems to lay at the foundation of 
the best improvements that can now be made in our Colleges 
generally, and of the best efforts to raise higher the standard 
of education and acquirement among us. 
6 



42 

It is, also, provided by the thirtyseventh and thirtyeightfa 
sections of the new Laws, that the examinations of the stu- 
dents shall be much more efficient than they have been. 
Heretofore, the public examinations at most of our places 
of education, except West Point, have been miserable farces, 
which have imposed on nobody ; not even on the students 
subjected to them. The mode now proposed at Cambridge, 
is, that the examining committee may be selected from the 
community at large ; and it is hoped, the provision in Mr 
Justice Story's report will be added, that the necessary ex- 
penses of such committees shall be borne by the College, 
and that the committees may employ as much time as may 
be found expedient. For it is idle to think of hurrying, in 
a single day, through the examination of sixty young men in 
the studies of a year ; and it is unreasonable to expect that 
gentlemen will come from a distance and undergo consider- 
able expense, for many days, in order to do it more thor- 
oughly. A good examination of this sort is one of the most 
laborious and one of the most valuable services that can be 
performed for the advancement of knowledge ; and, if it be 
well done, should not only be thorough, patient, and exact ; 
but, should be public at the time, and public in its results. 
The persons who make it, should send in a detailed report, 
sufficient to exhibit the state of the institution, and this re- 
port should afterwards be printed under the responsibility of 
their names. The community would then have such know- 
ledge as they need concerning our Colleges, and a better 
guarantee for their progress, than they now possess. 

It might be appropriate to notice at length some other of 
the changes provided by the new code of Laws which has 
just been given for the government of the College at Cam- 
bridge, because, there are yet others which involve general 
questions and principles of education ; but the present dis- 
cission is already too long. Some of them, however, ought 
at least, to be mentioned. The arrangement, for instance, 
in section nineteenth, which requires the President to main- 
tain an exact supervision over the whole institution, and to 
be present, for the same purpose, from time to time, at the 
recitations and exercises of all the officers, is obviously very 
valuable. It is the appropriate and most important duty of 
his office ; it is for this he has a place of higher dignity and 
emolument and is exempted from the labour of teaching ; 



43 

and it can hardly be doubted, that the provisions of this sec- 
tion may be so fulfilled, by efficiency and exactness, as to 
produce an excellent effect on .the progress of the students 
and the general character of the institution. 

The provision, too, in the tvventyeighth section, that the 
emoluments of the officers generally shall be made to de- 
pend, in part, on the number of students on the rolls of the 
College, is good. Its foundation is laid so deeply in some of 
the strongest principles of our nature, that it recommends 
itself at once to the good sense of all. 

The abolition, in section fortyfirst, of the long train of 
petty fines, which drew after them neither obedience nor 
repentance ; the total change in the character of suspen- 
sions, which, instead of being mere banishments, are now 
made means of more careful teaching and severer discipline ; 
the provision of section fiftysecond which sends home to the 
parent once every three months, a quarter bill, both of all 
the censures and all the rewards of his child, and thus 
brings the weight of domestic and parental influence di- 
rectly in aid of the authority of the College ; the regulation 
in section seventyseventh, which provides that in cases of 
combination, punishment shall begin with the two oldest, as 
having more discretion and responsibility, and probably more 
influence with their fellows in promoting the disturbance ; 
and the provision of section seventyninth, that students who 
do not fulfil the purposes for which they came to the Uni- 
versity, shall, in justice to themselves and their friends, be 
quietly dismissed with no reproach at all, or with as little as 
possible ; — all these are excellent regulations, and may be so 
used as much to strengthen and improve the character of 
any College where they are or may be adopted. 

There are other regulations in this new code which seem 
less wise, and some that may, perhaps be found injurious ; 
but the main outlines and changes seem excellent, and I 
forbear from noticing the lesser matters, partly from want of 
room and partly from the ungraciousness of the task. There 
are also deficiences, which those who are interested in the 
subject can wait patiently to see supplied, because it is un- 
derstood that still further important changes are contem- 
plated ; and because it is certain that such a work as has 
now been undertaken, cannot be stopped midway. But it 
rnny, perhaps, be observed of the whole code, that as a com- 



44 

position, it is not so well written as all that comes from such 
a source should be ; and that, as a body of laws, it greatly 
lacks that air of decision, energy, and exactness which is 
quite as important when applied to the little commonwealth 
of a college as when applied to the larger one for which the 
college is to fit its temporary subjects. Moreover, the whole 
code has seemed to many persons too long. Such petty 
regulations as those about prizes in the third chapter, 
and such a tailor's document as encumbers the eighth chap- 
ter, can have no proper place in it ; and in many sections, 
the excellent rule of Hesiod, which is full of good sense on 
such an occasion, nltov t]ul6v navTog, "the half is -more 
than the whole," seems to have been forgotten from a desire 
to give something like what Lord Mansfield considered the 
worst part of a Law, — the reasons for it. But these are not 
very important things compared with the great changes sug- 
gested, which, if carried through with alacrity, perseverance, 
and energy by the officers to whom they are now commit- 
ted, will do much to raise the tone of the higher branches of 
education among us. 

But there is one point that, I believe, must be made a 
sort of cynosure, when beneficial changes are undertaken, 
both at Harvard and at our other colleges ; and that is, the 
principle of thorough teaching. On this point, it is desir- 
able to be perfectly plain, and to be very plainly understood. 
It is a small matter to diminish the unreasonable amount of 
holidays, or to give the students more and longer lessons, 
under a division according to proficiency, or to do almost 
any thing else, if the principle of teaching is still to be over- 
looked. For the most that an instructer now undertakes in 
our colleges, is, to ascertain from day to day, whether the 
young men who are assembled in his presence, have proba- 
bly studied the lesson prescribed to them. There his duty 
stops. If the lesson have been learnt, it is well ; if it have 
not, nothing remains but punishment, after a sufficient num- 
ber of such offences shall have been accumulated to demand 
it ; and then it comes halting after the delinquent, he hardly 
knows why. The idea of a thorough commentary on the 
lesson ; the idea of making the explanations and illustrations 
of the teacher, of as much consequence as the recitation of 
the book, or even of more, is substantially unknown in this 
country, except at a few preparatory schools. The conse- 



4o 

quence is, that, though many of our colleges may have a 
valuable apparatus for instruction ; though they may be very 
s;ood, quiet and secluded places for study ; and though 
many of the young men who resort thither, may really learn 
not a little of what is exacted or expected from them ; yet, 
after all, not one of our colleges is a place for thorough teach- 
ing ; and not one of the better class of them does half of 
what it might do, by bringing the minds of its instructers to 
act directly and vigorously on the minds of its pupils, and 
thus to encourage, enable and compel them to learn what 
they ought to learn, and what they easily might learn. 

Consider only, that as many years are given to the great 
work of education here as are given in Europe ; and that it 
costs more money with us to be very imperfectly educated 
than it does to enjoy the great advantages of some of the best 
institutions and universities on the continent. And yet, who, 
in this country, by means here offered him, has been ena- 
bled to make himself a good Greek scholar ? Who has been 
taught thoroughly to read, write, and speak Latin ? Nay, 
who has been taught anything at our colleges with the thor- 
oughness that will enable him to go safely and directly on- 
ward to distinction in the department he has thus entered 
without returning to lay anew the foundations for his success ? 
It is a shame to be obliged to ask such questions ; and yet 
there is but one answer to them, and those, who have visited 
and examined the great schools of Europe have bitterly felt 
there, what this answer is, and why it must be given. 

In some of our colleges, there may be a reason for this 
state of things. Their means are small ; their apparatus in- 
complete ; their instructers few. They do what they can ; 
but they cannot do much more than spread before their stu- 
dents a small part of the means for acquiring knowledge, ex- 
amine them sufficiently to ascertain their general diligence, 
and encourage them to exertion by such rewards and pun- 
ishments as they can command. And in doing this, they 
may do the community great service and honourably fulfil 
their own duties. But at Cambridge and at our larger colle- 
ges much more than this can be done and ought to be done. 
The young men may be taught as well as examined. The 
large apparatus of Libraries, instruments and collections, and 
the greater number of Professors and Tutors may be turned 
to much better account and made to produce much wider 



46 

and more valuable results. The increasing demands of the 
community may be here met; and our high places for edu- 
cation may easily accommodate themselves more wisely 
to the spirit and wants of the times in which we live. And 
this if done at all, must be done speedily ; for new institu- 
tions are springing up, which, in the flexibility of their youth, 
will easily take the forms that are required of them, while 
the older establishments, if they suffer themselves to grow 
harder and harder in their ancient habits and systems, will 
find, when the period for more important alterations is come 
and free Universities are demanded and called forth, that, 
instead of being able to place themselves at the head of the 
coming changes and directing their course, they will only be 
the first victims of the spirit of improvement. 



NOTE (A.) p 13. 



The last number of the Quarterly Review, published since the preceding 
remarks were written, speaks in a veTy decisive manner, of the nonresi- 
denee of Fellows, complaining of its increase as an impediment to the 
formation of thorough scholars in England. It is there spoken of as " the 
present custom of dispensing, as a matter of course, with the residence of 
all members of foundations, who have taken the degree of Master of Arts. 
How little," the Review proceeds, " do we foresee the results of changes, 
wiiich break in upon the rules laid down for us by our forefathers. This 
custom has defeated, in a great measure, the object of the founders of our 
colleges ; and the consequence of it has been, the converting our Univer- 
sities into great schools; and the leaving in them scarcely any individuals 
who are simply occupied in the cultivation of literature Fellowships are 
sought for, as helping out the incomes of students in the active professions 
of life ; and the residents in the Universities are reduced to tutors and pu- 
pilsy Quarterly Rev. No. 63, p. 91. — This proves two things ; first, that the 
rules prescribing residence, wherever they existed, were no more than bye- 
laws, which the corporations had power to dispense with, and which, in 
fact, have been dispensed with ; and, second, that the purpose of Fellow- 
ships is understood in England to have been originally, and to be now, to 
afford means and leisure for private study. These are two of the points 
maintained in the preceding remarks. 

The motives that induce fellows to reside at the English colleges, are very 
obvious. Those who are destined for the church, may hope for ecclesiasti- 
cal preferment from their respective colleges, since most of the colleges 
have a considerable number of benefices in their gift ; while all fellows 
may have hopes of tutorships and the present enjoyment of comfortable 
rooms and commons free of expense. These inducements, however, in this 
stirring period of the world, have ceased to have their effect, and the num- 
ber of nonresident fellows is, in consequence, greatly increased. 

It is a mistake, however, to say, as has been said, that the nonresident 

the control of the Institu- 



47 

tion, take no part whatever, in its government. On the contrary, they lose 
no rights by nonresidence ; and so completely are their rights recognised by 
the resident fellows, that when any important business is to be transacted, 
notifications are sent to the nonresidents, that they may come to the meeting 
and exercise their powers. This they often really do. Indeed, in some in- 
stances, it is inevitable that the nonresidents should act. Take the case of 
Trinity Hall, Cambridge. This corporation consists of a master and twelve 
fellows. But for many years, and I believe, for many generations, the 
master and ten of the fellows, have been constantly nonresident The con- 
sequence is, that nonresidents always receive notice when business is to be 
transacted ; and, de facto, important affairs of this corporation are frequent- 
ly transacted at meetings held in London, where the master and a majority 
of the fellows reside. Of course, the nonresident fellows in the English 
colleges have just as much control and power over their respective institu- 
tions as the nonresident fellows of Harvard College, and the argument 
founded on an opposite statement of facts entirely fails. 



NOTE (B.) p. 32. 



There is one other proposition for a change of powers, which having been 
made long after the memorial was presented, and being no part of it, 
entirely escaped my notice, when I prepared the body of the preceding 
remarks ; but, to which it may be proper to turn for a moment. 

It has been said, that the power of originating all laws respecting the dis- 
cipline and instruction of college, ought to be formally and fully conceded 
to the resident teachers, and that the corporation should consider itself 
merely as a board of control, having a negative on their proceedings. But 
this would involve a strange inconsistency. The corporation, in the case 
proposed, would manage the funds and assign the salaries ; and the persons 
who would receive the salaries, would be left to determine among them- 
selves what duties they would perform ; for, on this plan, no duties could 
be assigned them but by themselves. It would be the case of a contract, 
where one party would be bound to pay large sums of money, and the 
other would be left free to choose what returns of service should be made 
for it. Indeed, as no duty or burthen could be imposed on the teachers, 
under such circumstances, save by their own free consent, or rather, on 
their own suggestion and proposition, it requires little knowledge of human 
nature to predict, that wherever such an arrangement should be adopted, 
the burthens assumed by those who would be left to execute it, would not 
be very heavy. But the whole arrangement would be a strange anomaly, 
because it would be a contract where one party would be bound and the 
other would not. 

Another proposition connected with it, is, to give the resident teachers 
the power of nominating to all offices of instruction and discipline. Expe- 
rience has proved this an unsafe and injurious power. The case of the 
German Universities has been already mentioned, together with the praise 
bestowed on the founder of Gottingen, that he had been taught by experi- 
ence, and refused to give^such a power to the teachers of his new univer- 
sity. But^at Harvard, such a power would draw after it consequences more 
embarrassing and dangerous. The offices to which nominations are to be 
made, are of very unequal value and rank. Some are temporary, and some 
permanent. Some are confined to the discipline of the college, and some 
extend to its instruction. Some have large salaries, and some small. Now 
those who hold inferior places, having a voice in the nomination to the 
higher ones, must be less wise than they ought to be presumed, if they do 



^v 



48 



not seek their own promotion. Thus parties would inevitably be organised, 
and a new set of interests and passions be introduced among the teachers, 
who must almost uniformly nominate from among their personal acquaint- 
ances, friends and associates in office. Under these circumstances, it can- 
not be supposed, that the selection would always be impartial or wise, or 
made always in the kindest and most conciliating temper. 

When, however, the right of originating all laws and nominating to all 
offices of discipline and instruction, should be transferred to the teachers, no- 
thing worth mentioning would remain to the corporation but the control 
and management of the funds. Even for this, however, they have been 
thought incompetent; for it has been proposed, in conjunction with the two 
preceding changes, to give them the further assistance of two of the resident 
officers, besides the President, by requiring that two of them should be elec- 
ted regularly into the corporation. On the expediency of having teachers 
in the corporation, some remarks have been already made, so that it is only 
necessary now to add, that this last proposition taken in connexion with the 
two others, would give the coup dc grace to the corporation, as an indepen- 
dent and responsible body. It may be even doubted, whether, after such 
an abdication of their powers, it would not be somewhat difficult to find 
gentlemen of respectability who w r ould accept seats at a board, where their 
principal duty would be to receive the directions and record the decisions 
of the body of the teachers. 

The whole of this proposition, it is plain, is but another form of the pro- 
position in the memorial, to constitute the corporation entirely of teachers, 
since it, in effect, would transfer to the teachers, the powers now possessed 
by the corporation ; and as the constituted authorities and public opinion 
have decided the first question with great formality and after much investi- 
gation ; so, if the other should ever be as formallv proposed, it would, no 
doubt, receive the same answer 






Dr.C ^ 



LIBRARY OF CQHQgBB 



I* 






■ 



■ 



■ 






I 



^H 



■ 



I A'v-i 



